Roundabout Papers - Penn State University

ThackerayROUNDABOUTPAPERSByWilliam MakepeaceThackerayON A LAZY IDLE BOYmartyr, Lucius,* who founded the Church of St. Peter,on Cornhill. Few people note the church now-a-days,and fewer ever heard of the saint. In the cathedral atChur, his statue appears surrounded by other saintedpersons of his family. With tight red breeches, a Romanhabit, a curly brown beard, and a neat little gilt crownand sceptre, he stands, a very comely and cheerful image:and, from what I may call his peculiar positionwith regard to Cornhill, I beheld this figure of St. Luciuswith more interest than I should have bestowed uponpersonages who, hierarchically, are, I dare say, his superiors.The pretty little city stands, so to speak, at the end ofthe world—of the world of to-day, the world of rapidmotion, and rushing railways, and the commerce and intercourseof men. From the northern gate, the iron roadI had occasion to pass a week in the autumn in thelittle old town of Coire or Chur, in the Grisons, wherelies buried that very ancient British king, saint, and5* Stow quotes the inscription, still extant, from the table fastchained in St. Peter’s Church, Cornhill; and says, “he was aftersome chronicle buried at London, and after some chronicleburied at Glowcester”—but, oh! these incorrect chroniclers!when Alban Butler, in the “Lives of the Saints,” v. xii., andMurray’s “Handbook,” and the Sacristan at Chur, all say Luciuswas killed there, and I saw his tomb with my own eyes!